Meijer de Haan was born on April 14, 1852 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, to a successful Jewish family, owners of de Haan Bread and Matzo Bakery in Amsterdam’s Jewish quarter. His maternal grandfather was a rich fabric merchant who owned several residential buildings.
Little is known about Meijer's childhood, other than that he grew up as part of a large family: he had two brothers and one sister, all younger than him, and his parents shared a home with his maternal aunt and his uncle who, themselves, had seven children.
During the 1870s, the De Haan family was affected by a number of major changes. Samuel, Meyer's brother, opened a bakery in 1872. Mietje, their mother, died in 1875.
Education
Between 1867 and 1872, Meijer de Haan took lessons from P. F. Greive, a minor artist who specialised in picturesque fishing scenes.
In 1874, Meijer de Haan was accepted at the National Academy of Fine Art and admitted to the drawing class. As he was taken ill, he only stayed there for a few months.
Career
Meijer de Haan had some success in the Netherlands as a painter of Jewish genre works. In Amsterdam de Haan painted portraits and took on several pupils, including Joseph Jacob Isaacson, Louis Hartz and Baruch Lopes de Leao Laguna. De Haan exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1879 and 1880, and participated regularly in the Triennal for living masters organised in his town.
For eight years between 1880 and 1888, Meijer de Haan worked on an enormous painting that he intended to be his magnum opus. Reworking his painting numerous times, he finally presented his "Uriël Acosta" at a retrospective that he organised in 1888, with his pupils Isaacson and Hartz, at the Panorama in Amsterdam.
In the winter of 1888, accompanied by his pupil, Isaacson, de Haan went to Paris. There he met Pissarro, Theo van Gogh, an art dealer, and Paul Gauguin, whom De Haan accompanied to Brittany, France. Van Gogh introduced de Haan to his brother Vincent van Gogh, and Meijer de Haan exchanged several letters with Vincent.
From 1889 to 1890 de Haan painted alongside Gauguin in Brittany, but sadly did not live long enough for any putative lessons to become visible in his art. Nevertheless, it was the most productive period of de Haan's stay in France. Later Meijer de Haan and Gauguin moved to Le Pouldu. There are several portraits of De Haan dating from the time at Le Pouldu painted, drawn or sculpted by Gauguin.
in October 1890 De Haan suddenly left Le Pouldu. Little is known about De Haan's life in the months following his departure from Le Pouldu.
Meijer de Haan died of tuberculosis on October 24, 1895 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Quotations:
"When I look back, when I think of that sombre, stifling environment where I hung about in my youth - of that niggardly and narrow-minded artistic circle, I feel overjoyed today thanks to my liberal ideas, to a young and vigorous present and great confidence in the future."
Membership
Meijer de Haan was a member of Pont-Aven School.
Personality
Physical Characteristics:
He was blond, with blue eyes and suffered from "a slight disability". This was certainly his humpback, probably the result of tuberculosis that affected him throughout his life. As he was only 4 feet 11 tall, he escaped his military obligations "because of his short stature".
Connections
De Haan had a liaison with Marie Henry, the owner of the seaside hotel-café Buvette de la plage in Brittany, France. In the summer of 1891 Marie Henry gave birth to a daughter who was called Ida.